Monday, March 28, 2016

IN OUR EASTER BONNETS, CONTINUED

Now that we've had our beauty sleep, we'd like to present some of the wonderfully and creatively turned out people we met at this year's Easter parade. (Reminder: click on photos to enlarge.)

It was a chilly day, and hard to dress for. We reluctantly dressed in wool, but other hardier souls came out in their finest springwear. We loved this woman in the yellow suit and hat (which she made herself).

We fell in love with this woman in her old turn-of-the-century style full length green velvet coat.

This woman looks great in her robin's egg blue suit with matching shoes.

Every year we look forward to seeing Elaine in a hat she designs and paints herself, each time with a New York theme. Our long-time followers will have seen many of Elaine's gorgeous hats. She estimated that she probably has painted 14 hats over the years.

Look how flawlessly this woman has styled herself. Everything is great. Love the tiny flash of yellow among all the red, too.

We ran into Patricia Fox along the way. Her boyfriend Howard was kind enough to take this picture.

photograph courtesy of Patricia Fox

Many paraders wear period clothing. Turn-of-the-century, as seen in the green coat above and the costume below, are popular choices, and reflect the early history of the parade.

More classic style. The hat, however, is by an Etsy milliner.

Love this outfit, which seems to reflect an 80s sensibility, and the great big colorful blossom on her hat.

It was no surprise when this woman told us she treated herself to a Paris hat. There are just some things the French will always take more seriously than we do. And thank goodness for that.

Although this woman was photographing everyone else, she herself was a most marvelous subject for a photo.

This dandelion hat gets a prize for greatest use of creativity in the realistic rendition of a flower.

A beautifully dressed couple.

We applaud these gents for turning out in jackets in vivid spring colors. Next year we hope to applaud them for turning out in jackets in vivid spring colors with matching hats.

Not only was Michael Broderick sporting a stunning suit on, but also wore a laser cut paper top hat of his own making. Can you make out the frolicking bunnies cut into the paper?

As always, the crowding was such that we were not always able to get a clear shot of the objects of our desire, but we had to include this gent in his brightly colored Marimekko-like flower print suit. Where did he get it???
Early in the day, we ran into this dapper young man with an orange check shirt and bow tie. He was in town from San Francisco and since he was a big Advanced Style fan, we alerted him to the fact that a bunch of older ladies were meeting at 1 PM on the corner of 5th Avenue at East 50th Street, on the south side of St. Patrick's.

A fixture at the parade is this lovely couple. They always dress up for the occasion to stroll the avenue and she always carries a beautiful bouquet. On this occasion, they were accompanied by a well-dressed young man in bowler hat, bow tie and spectator shoes.

We met Robert B. Dimmick aka the Etiquetteer at the parade and traded opinions about well-dressed members of the crowd versus those who embrace a more circus-like aesthetic. Do click on the link not only to get his take on the day's events but also acquaint yourself with a most interesting and entertaining blog.

For additional coverage of the parade through Denton Taylor's eyes, check out 40PlusStyle.com.

Photo courtesy of Denton Taylor and 40PlusStyle.com

Another group we always look forward to seeing is our friend Xtine and her posse who always embellish their hats for the parade.

Longtime readers may remember our affection for polka dots and conical hats and recall how we painted two vintage hats with red lacquer and affixed to them white quarter-sized polka dots. We loved the polka dot hats, black and white clothing, transparent parasols and bright red bags worn by these 8 happy individuals who seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

Some couples coordinated their looks and head gear, like this young pair.

Debonaire man about town Robert Bryan and his friend Suzanne always look divinely stylish in vintage clothing.

Artist Jane Folds in her signature red heart-shaped glasses, made the red feather hat she was wearing and brought one of her handmade marionettes (Lady Liberty) to the parade.

Artist Davey Mitchell never fails to make an entrance in intricately constructed outfits.

These architectural skyscraper hats were amazing, but were also most problematic in high winds.

It wouldn't be a parade without Zondra Foxx in vintage hat, coat, dress, gloves, jewelry and bag. Loved her placement of the ring over her glove.

This gentleman not only elaborately adorned his own top hat and tie, but also that of his canine companion.

The next generation: fascinators and fans! This trio was "dressed to the nines". While we were both chilly and glad to be wearing wool coats, these two glamour-pusses showed us to be wimps, wearing their gowns with just long gloves or a sweater.

4 comments:

I look forward to seeing photos from the parade every year - one year I'll get there to see it in person! My faves are the dandelion hat, the man in the blue and white flowered suit, and of course, Davey, who is a walking art installation.

Love the shot of the 8 of you, making your own uberstylin' Easter Parade.

Jean and Valerie, Great to see you at the Parade. This is great coverage. We met Robert Bryan and his friend last week at the Metrograph, our new movie theatre on Ludlow Street. We saw The Boy Friend with Twiggy and Tommy Tune.

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GROWING OLD WITH VERVE
‘Growing old gracefully’ is an outdated concept. We prefer ‘growing old with verve’. This blog documents our efforts to live up to that motto, in photos and essays. We embrace our gray hair, while sharing the playground nicely with our younger siblings. Bette Davis was right when she said 'growing old is not for sissies', but it’s also not one of Dante’s circles of hell. Idiosyncratic Fashionistas explores what’s out there for Women of a Certain Age, comments on what’s not out there, and demonstrates that our overlooked demographic is still fabulous.
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